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4.2.12 WC: 191694 The first real books I actually read were several to which I had been introduced by the Classic Comics: The Count of Monte Christo, The Red Badge of Courage; Moby Dick; and a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. During my senior year in high school, I became a voracious reader, to the disdain of some family members. My Uncle Hedgie (a nickname for Harry) would berate me for sitting around the house reading, when I could be working or playing sports. "Be a man," he would demand. "Get off your ass." But I would stay in my tiny room, with my Webcote tape recorder playing classical music I had recorded off WQXR, the New York Times classical music station, or off a record I borrowed from the library and recorded from my friend Artie's turntable. I also bought a used copy of the Encyclopedia Americana, whose twenty plus volumes filled the hitherto empty shelves in our living room. My friend Norman Sohn had found an old book store in Manhattan that sold used Encyclopedias, and the Americana cost only $75, as contrasted with the Britannica, which was $200. During my early years, all we had was a small plastic radio that lived in the kitchen, unless it was moved near the stoop. When I was 10 years old, we bought a ten inch TV "console" that included a 78 phonograph player that opened at the top. But my mother had situated her "good" lamp on the top of the console, so I couldn't get access to the turntable. I saved up, and with my Bar Mitzvah money, I bought a humongous webcore reel to reel tape recorder, which must have been a foot cubed. I could barely lift it, and the tape often tangled or split, but it was better than the wire recorder technology that it replaced. I loved classical music, especially opera and choral music. As an adolescent I had sung alto in the local synagogue choir and had a fairly good voice. I was "fairly" good--but not very good-- at lots of things in addition to singing: athletics, acting, joke telling and getting dates with girls. I was very good at only one thing: debating. And I was equally bad at one thing: school. My passion for music took me to the Metropolitan Opera House, where for 50 cents, a student could get a seat with a table and a lamp if he came with a score of the opera. We would borrow the score from the library, take a train to Times Square and listen to Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, Jan Pierce and Roberta Peters sing Carman, La Boheme and La Traviata. (We were forbidden to listen to Wagner, because he was an anti-Semite, who admired). I also became passionate about art. All kinds of art from Egyptian and Roman Sculpture to Picasso's Guernica and Rodan's Thinker. There were no art poster or reproductions in our home. The walls had mirrors (to make the apartment seem bigger) and some family photos. But there were free museums all around us, and the library had art books--with pictures of naked women! I loved Goya's nude, especially when contrasted with the clothed version of La Gioconda who I could imagine undressing just for me! The girls loved to be asked on a museum date, and we loved to ask because it was free and it showed them that we had "culture" (pronounced "culchah"). [9 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017106